3 Things You'll Find in My Mental Health Toolbox
Like any other coach, I love talking about training and programming and being in the weight room while coaching. But like many of you, I’ve neglected the thing between my ears, and I want you to know that it’s all right to feel. If your mental health is a weakness, don’t avoid it.
WATCH: I am Ashley Jones
elitefts columnist Ashley Jones is Australian by birth, a New Zealander by choice and marriage, but first and foremost, he's a strength and conditioning coach with 40 years of experience under his belt with plenty of passion and advice to spare to future coaches.
Technically, You're Weak
Enough of the excuses. I'm sick of hearing them. You have the energy to roll on the floor for 45 minutes before you train, take 34 selfies, and tag the gang before you leave the gym, but you can’t spend an extra 30 minutes on your back?
5 Tips That Will Increase Any Lift
It's inevitable that a lifter will hit a plateau at some point or another. It's frustrating, I know. Trust me, I've been there. But after 10 years of powerlifting and 14 years of strength training before that, I think I've unlocked some of the secrets to making gains. Here are five things that helped me increase my lifts.
Laying Out the Groundwork to Prevent Injuries
Why are we not focusing on the mechanics? Why is this not important to more coaches and personal trainers? Why are we not laying the groundwork for these athletes to be successful? Staying healthy is a huge part of being successful and in the world of college athletics, if you are injured, you’re not playing.
Performance Drive Response
Reading Al Miller’s “The System” made me think about my most successful program. I’ve dubbed this hodgepodge of six years in strength and conditioning “Performance Drive Response,” which is a culmination of a bunch of different systems I’ve used, seen, and been in or part of.
Cal Poly Promotes Sara MacKenzie as Director of Strength and Conditioning
Sara MacKenzie was promoted to Director of Strength and Conditioning at Cal Poly, making her the second woman who holds that position among all NCAA Division I schools with football programs.
Through the Players' Eyes
Coaches, athletic trainers, physical therapists, equipment personnel, and league officials all have distinctly different vantage points on the same subject matter. Somewhere along the lines, one of the most critical perspectives gets lost in the shuffle: the players’.
How Strong is Strong Enough?
To answer this question, we need to define strength. But there are many ways to define strength, so we all have to come up with our own method for defining strength. For me, it’s the squat.
Strength, Velocity, Power — How You Can Build Each to Produce Ballistic ...
Essentially, force (strength), velocity and speed-strength (power) are the three main characteristics that are present in ballistic movements, and you can train all of them in the weight room.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Program
If we are not seeing progress in the right direction within an expected length of time, we must change things up. If we are not evaluating, then how do we even know if we are making progress at all?
Bodybuilding for the Powerlifter: The Big Picture (With Sample Routine)
Instead of just trying to get strong by getting as big as humanly possible, many lifters are paying more attention to their muscularity. Just take a look at Larry Wheels or Dan Green, and you’ll immediately know how successful this strategy can be.
The Misunderstanding of Sport-Specific Training
Running around and practicing soccer skills while wearing a weighted vest, attaching a band to a hockey stick or a baseball bat, and a myriad of other ridiculous activities in the weight room do not count as sport-specific activities.
A Strength and Conditioning Program for Youth Figure Skating
This program is used for athletes ranging in age from 10 to 14 years and is based on specific goals in the primer, strength, conditioning, prehabilitation, and regeneration phases.
What Is Strength?
Mental strength and physical strength are two necessary components for a healthy, happy life of abundance, but you have to get uncomfortable to start building them.
WATCH: elitefts Core Values — Strength
What is true in the gym is true in life. Everything is about strength and overcoming adversity.
5 Cable Exercises You Should Be Using
If you’re one of those guys who thinks anything outside of plates on a bar is blaspheme, give me five minutes to convince you otherwise.
The elitefts Company Story
From 1998 to today, elitefts has had one simple goal: to make average athletes great and great athletes elite. This is how the company has grown along the way to educate and outfit the strongest athletes around the world.
The Coach's Guide to Programming and Periodization: Basic Principle...
We can’t simply throw random exercises and set and rep schemes on a piece of paper haphazardly and then hope for the best. In this series I will teach you how to write programs, including a coach’s assignment for each article.
Tissue Load vs. Tissue Capacity: Increasing Tissue Capacity While Alteri...
This second article of the series discusses additional loading concepts, training considerations, and rehabilitation protocols for increasing tissue capacity while maintaining or decreasing training load.
Olympic-Style Weightlifting Exercises for Youth Athletes
In this article are evidence-based recommendations for introducing youth athletes to the snatch, the clean and jerk, and their derivatives.
Developing Your Own Strongman Program
Designing a program that builds agility, speed, strength, and conditioning, while also training the strongman movements, can seem a daunting task. Here’s how I approach it.
Strongman Programming for Max Reps Events
I’m going to outline a 12-week program for an event that is max reps — a weight that is currently out of your reach.
Building the Raw Powerlifting Total
Here are several very vital pieces of information that often go overlooked and undervalued when it comes to doing your best on the platform.
Building the Yoke
A big yoke equals instant respect. No one wants to screw with a guy that has a big neck and a thick yoke.
How I'm Training for the 2017 US Open Powerlifting Championships
I’m going to share my strategy and reasoning behind it here, so hopefully, you can get some inspiration for whatever meet you’ve got coming up.
Extending The 30's Method for Strength and Size
This method has shown effectiveness in hypertrophy training, so I’ve decided to try something new: what will happen if we take this method and alter it to cover two extremes of the training continuum?
WATCH: Table Talk — Flaws of Percentage-Based Programming and Training
In this video, Maliek and Dave discuss the problems with percentage-based training and share alternative methods for strength programming.
Build the Back, Spare the Spine
The healthier you can keep your spine, the longer you can train heavy and grow muscle. Here are my top-10, spine-friendly exercises.
elitefts Classic: How to Set Up A Program — A New Look at Weak Points
I don’t know how many questions we’ve gotten about how to train certain weak points. Of course, almost every question is in regard to a weak muscle group or a certain portion of a lift.
Reset Your PR's
In a perfect world, you’re always getting stronger and your PR’s are always moving higher. Well, this world isn’t perfect, and you need to remember that if you want to get stronger.
Three Days at Kabuki Strength Systems
Through our many adventures, Chris Duffin and I trained, went four-wheeling, ate A LOT, and talked about many aspects of coaching and programming.
Practical Programming Adjustments Determined By Age
If you aren’t considering this factor, your training is suffering.
Summer Programming — Eliminate the Two Steps Back
You took a step forward and now it’s summer. This time of year means nine weeks of strength and conditioning bliss and nine weeks of scheduling, programming and executing our own version of “the master plan.”
Do You Believe?
Was I able to do these things and reach the level that I did simply because I believed?
My Weekend of Strength
With a clinic and meet scheduled on back to back days, I was surrounded by influential members of the strength community and made a few discoveries.
Confidence — What Separates the Elite from the Novice
Where is your confidence and what are you willing to do to strengthen it?
Don't Romanticize Self-Destruction
What must competitors put themselves through to attain championship notoriety? Being confined to a wheelchair? Torn relationships? Shortened lifespan?
Arch Your Way to a Bigger Bench
A shorter range of motion means a bigger bench. Here’s how to get your chest closer to the bar without taking your ass off the bench.
Hypertrophy Hierarchy: How Your Muscle-Building Program Should Evolve Ov...
The techniques of top bodybuilders may look fun. They may entice you. But first, you need to earn them.
Defending Margins
You might think I’m talking about business. I’m not. I’m talking about something much more important.
Depression Answers for Athletes
I can only imagine from my personal experience with depression how athletes like Dave Mirra reach the point of tragedy.
Fix These Simple Mistakes to Lift Heavier Weights
These mistakes in the squat, bench, and deadlift seem small on their own. But add them to together? You’re leaving pounds off your total.
The Work Comes First
You will find no forward momentum by doing nothing. Without work, passion and purpose won’t take you anywhere.
Recognize Your Weaknesses and Limitations
This could be the simple rule to great strength — are you following it?
Culture of the Team: The Hardest Part of Coaching
This problem started to creep up on us several years ago and I only see it getting worse.
How I Benched 500 Pounds As A Teenager
The methods weren’t perfect, the food was mostly shit, but it worked. There are a few things I’d change before recommending this for someone else.
My 30-Year Love Affair with Lifting
If I never did another meet, wrote another article, or coached at another seminar, I would still love lifting.
Here and Now: Mindfulness and Being in the Moment
Your time in the gym is precious. If you don’t summon the iron will to shut off the outside world, get out.
How to Train and Use the Stretch Reflex for Better Performance
The stretch reflex plays a vital role in your body’s ability to promote flexibility, increase strength, and develop power.
Is Stress Killing Your Progress?
Life stress is unavoidable. It can overwhelm you and have a negative impact on your training…if you let it.
Big Is a Byproduct of Strong
A proper weight room strategy provides adequate attention to the development of strength and size — two qualities necessary for your team’s improvement.
The Sticking Point: How To Find Your Weakness and Fix It
A logical process of elimination begins by considering all possible causes of your sticking point. I don’t have the answer but I can help you find it.
Do Strength Gains Equal Size Gains?
Can you get huge without being the strongest guy in the gym? Consider these ten reasons why bodybuilders have larger muscles than powerlifters.
RMU Strength and Speed Conference Recap
Instead of telling you about the event, I’ll do you a favor: here is an eight-hour video of every presentation.
Not Feeling The Gym Today?
If you are not feeling up to the task of a workout, should you toughen up and push through it or take it easy?
Training Women: There Is A Difference
Men and women have different needs. Pay attention to these eleven factors when programming for your female clients.
Wenis and Wagina Training: Elbow Position Is Everything
Are you conscious of where you’re placing your elbows during presses, rows, flyes, curls, and pullovers?
How to Run A Great Strongman Contest
These eight rules of contest promotion are vital to your event’s success and your athletes’ satisfaction. Do it right and they’ll be back next time.
